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Gav in the book comes across as a somebody exactly like Wayne Rooney, with his thick neck merging seamlessly with a meat head and stupidity (before Rooney grew up and became an overpaid football star of course).

'Poverty is not an injustice. There is no such thing as causes for poverty, only causes for wealth. Poverty is not a wrong, but taking money from those who have it to equalize incomes is basically theft, which is wrong.' - Typical Randroid

Finished The Crow Road about a month ago, and I find I liked it quite a bit. First several hundred pages are a difficult read, what with the multiple narratives and flash forwards and backwards, but if you stick with it, comes together nicely. Though tough at first to remember who is who. Since my timeline intersects with a lot of what is happening in the book, I found myself reminiscing about the time period covered. My youth had a similarity to Prentice's. Drugs, sex and rock'n roll, though with fewer friends and less time spent with quaint and idiosyncratic family and relatives, and a good deal less alcohol. Also a central Wisconsin setting, thus not much ocean though having spent 4 years of childhood in Hawaii, I can relate somewhat. No dark, hidden family secrets either (that I'm aware of). While most people seem to fixate on the boat sex, I was drawn to the final sex scene with Ashley. Intellectual porn at its best, a vaginal grip on one's soul. Banks is a fantastic writer, but then I guess we are all aware of that.

I've just watched the BBC DVDs of The Crow Road, having missed it when it came out back in the late 90s. A very good adaptation, I thought, even if there is inevitably some trimming of the various strands of the plot to make it manageable in 4 hours. It's a lot easier to follow the plot in the TV version than in the book, but it's the complex plotting that makes the book attractive to read more than once. A lot of the humour comes across well in the TV version, which should perhaps have been titled Four Funerals and a Wedding.

Has anyone attempted to write down a time-line for the book's plot, clarifying what happens when? This would be useful for re-reading the book, as it would make the reader appreciate how elegantly the narration is structured.

Hi Guys - though I could be talking to myself here as everyone seems to have left for pastures new !
I'm reading the ' Non Ms ' in reverse trying to save the best for last so to speak , just finished ' The Crow Road ' which I thoroughly enjoyed - went from The Quarry to Dead Air to The Crow Road , am now on ' Espedair Street ', I have now read almost all the non ms bar Walking On Glass , The Bridge and The Wasp Factory .
Favourites thus far are The Crow Road and Transition .

hi. good work. I'm more of an M fan to be honest. Currently re-reading matter, having re-read UoW last week. Despite critics writing IMB material off as war SF I still find more depth 5th time around than other contemporaries on 1st read.

I have most of the ' Ms ' in my collection though I lack the first 3 in the series , ' Consider Phlebas ' etc - I collect hardbacks so those first 3 are beyond my means - I guess I'll have to break my non paperback rule !